Diego Simeone declined to categorically rule out a departure for Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez after Atl\u00e9tico Madrid\u2019s disappointing end to the 2025\u201326 season, instead placing the onus on the player. \u00c1lvarez arrived from Manchester City in 2024 for approximately $110.6 million (\u20ac95 million) as Atl\u00e9tico sought a new offensive focal point following Antoine Griezmann\u2019s decline in influence.<\/p>\n
A treble winner with Manchester City who left in search of a leading role away from Erling Haaland\u2019s shadow, \u00c1lvarez has been an effective signing in Madrid. Across two seasons with the club he has been a clear attacking asset, yet collective targets have been missed. Atl\u00e9tico were beaten 5\u20131 by Villarreal on the final day, lost the Copa del Rey final to Real Sociedad on penalties and exited the Champions League in the semifinals. They will return to the Champions League after a comfortable fourth-place finish in La Liga, but \u00c1lvarez\u2019s presence for 2026\u201327 is uncertain.<\/p>\n
When asked after the Villarreal defeat, Simeone gave an answer that suggested the player\u2019s intentions matter most. \u201cThat\u2019s not a question for me, it\u2019s a question for Juli\u00e1n,\u201d Simeone told reporters, as quoted by SPORT .<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s old enough to know what he\u2019s going to do, and I imagine he\u2019s probably already made up his mind,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
Spanish media are beginning to believe \u00c1lvarez may not wear Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s red and white at the start of 2026\u201327. If he leaves, his record at the club would stand at 49 goals in 106 appearances, including 10 in this season\u2019s Champions League. The forward has attracted interest from both the Spanish and English champions, and Barcelona are heavily linked as they look for a replacement for Robert Lewandowski. Any transfer is expected to be costly, with prices likely to exceed $115 million.<\/p>\n
For Atl\u00e9tico, the question now is whether they can retain a player who has delivered individually while the team has fallen short of key objectives. Simeone\u2019s response positions \u00c1lvarez as the main actor in whatever comes next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Simeone refused to rule out \u00c1lvarez leaving Atl\u00e9tico, saying the decision is for the player in 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1035,1647],"tags":[983,1162,1637],"class_list":["post-14060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atletico-madrid","category-champions-league","tag-agents","tag-analytics","tag-assists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}